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Category archives for: Americana

In the Trenches: Anger and Questions From Doctors Who Treat Gunshot Victims

| March 22, 2013

In Colorado, where more people die from gunshots than car crashes, the victims have a profound effect on the physicians who treat them. For some of the doctors on the front lines, the experiences lead to a strong opposition to guns, questions about gun laws and even activism.

One Nation, Without a Clue

| March 21, 2013

If our generations had been around in the 1930s, we’d still be in the Great Depression with prominent lawmakers telling each other we need a smaller government, argues Donald Kaul.

Sarah Palin in Lakeland: Locking and Loading Assault Weapons With Jesus

| March 18, 2013

Sarah Palin urged her faithfuls to “cling to your god, your guns, your Constitution,” a seamless ideology that would have Jesus waving the American flag with one hand and clicking off the safety of his assault rifle with the other, writes Cary McMullen.

Missing Memorials to Two Lost Wars

| March 17, 2013

This week marks the 10th anniversary of the beginning of the Iraq war, but as Iraq and Afghanistan have been lost, the focus of memorials has shifted from wars to the cult of the soldiers, while victims of war are as always passed over in silence.

What Researchers Learned About Gun Violence Before Congress Killed Funding

| February 26, 2013

President Obama has directed the Centers for Disease Control to research gun violence as part of his legislative package on gun control. The CDC hasn’t pursued this kind of research since 1996 when the National Rifle Association lobbied Congress to cut funding for it.

School Security’s Buy-A-Cop Delusions

| February 3, 2013

The Flagler County School board this week will debate adoption of a new security plan that includes adding armed cops in elementary schools. The approach would be costly, ineffective, and more emotional than intelligent. Smarter approaches–and far greater priorities–abound.

Obama II

| January 21, 2013

Far from a dud, as these second inaugurals tend to be, Obama’s today was bracing in its realism, and hopeful, ironically, for having finally shed the imagery of hope for hope’s sake, replacing it with an agenda for equality, little heard of since the days of the New Deal and the Great Society.

“We Cannot Walk Alone…
We Cannot Turn Back”

| January 21, 2013

Full text and video of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream Speech,” a brief history of the origins and battles of the Martin Luther King federal holiday, and of the Martin Luther King monument at the Washington Mall.

The Thanks and Reverence We Owe Undocumented Immigrants

| January 20, 2013

We’ve admitted that these immigrants aren’t going away. Let’s admit our co-dependence, let’s restore their dignity, and America’s, and admit that illegal immigration is as American as apple pie, if not as American as empanadas.

Arming Teachers Isn’t Enough:
A Proposal of Modest Caliber

| January 13, 2013

The NRA’s Wayne LaPierre is proposing having an armed guard in every school. That’s insane, because it’s not enough: teachers, principals, librarians, counselors, bus drivers should all be armed, and of course children, too, should be armed.

Mocking the Pledge of Allegiance

| November 25, 2012

A reporter is fired after only reluctantly mentioning that a city councilman refused to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance in the latest example of ignorance replacing the very values the Pledge stands for, values that apply especially for those who choose to sit it out.

Astronaut Suni Williams Enthralls 1,000 Flagler Students in a Ham Radio Chat From ISS

| November 16, 2012

Suni Williams, one of the most decorated American astronauts, was 210 miles above Florida as she fielded some 20 questions for 10 minutes from students before a packed audience of 1,000 at Indian Trails Middle School today, in a thrilling, old-fashioned hook up made possible by the Flagler Palm Coast Amateur Radio Club.

When Riots In Defense of Islam Are More Vile Than Any Parody of the Prophet

| September 15, 2012

“Innocence of Muslims” is a vile movie about Islam, but its movie maker had every right to make it, and it is far less vile than the murderous riots Muslim fundamentalists have launched as a result–or Mitt Romney’s political opportunism over the crisis.

We’re All Vikings Fans Today: Chris Kluwe Kicks Emmett Burns’s Gay Marriage Bigotries

| September 8, 2012

Maryland lawmaker Emmett Burns wrote a bullying letter to the Baltimore Ravens owner asking him to silence Brendon Ayanbadejo’s support for gay marriage. Chris Kluwe kicked back the most winning answer of the year.

What Makes Us Exceptional

| August 31, 2012

It is not that American Exceptionalism is being lost, it’s that those who want to “tabe back America” have lost sight of what has made America exceptional, argues Dan Gelber after watching the Republican National Convention.

“Just Stop Acting Stupid,” Jeb Bush Tells Republicans Over Immigration Extremism

| August 29, 2012

Worried about losing the Latino vote, Bush and other Republicans nevertheless brushed off questions about whether the still-extremist immigration plank of the Republican Party could prove to be too much of a hurdle for the presidential campaign of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

You’ll Shop for 43 Minutes a Day, But You Won’t Take 15 Minutes to Vote Every Two Years

| August 19, 2012

Less than 16 percent of Florida’s eligible voters, and 20 percent of Flagler’s, cast a ballot in last Tuesday’s primary, once again reminding the world that Americans’s interest in community and citizenship is among the lowest of any democracies. Perhaps it’s time to make voting mandatory.

Hurricane Andrew 20 Years Later: Memories of Resilience in a Storm’s Wake

| August 11, 2012

Frank Gromling, who lived and worked in the path of Hurricane Andrew 20 years ago, remembers the days of the storm and its aftermath in a South Florida ravished beyond recognition. A spirit for rebirth was left intact, however.

Walmart at 50: Gutting the Middle Class 1 Small Business and Manufacturing Job at a Time

| July 7, 2012

Walmart’s 50th anniversary caps a 150year stretch when the number of independent retailers fell by over 60,000, and when, between 2001 and 2007, some 40,000 U.S. factories closed, eliminating millions of jobs.

Jeb Bush’s Republican Identity Crisis and the Limits of Tolerance

| July 5, 2012

Even as Jeb Bush calls for a more tolerant Republican Party where ideas compete, his description of Obama’s reign in the White House as “One Ideology, One Party, and One Man” is more Orwellian than anything else, and misses the nature of Americans’ passionate beliefs, argues Steven Kurlander.

I’ll Have What She’s Having
In Praise of Nora Ephron

| July 1, 2012

Long before she was putting words into the mouth of Tom Hanks in “Sleepless in Seattle” and fake orgasms into the mouth of Meg Ryan in “When Harry Met Sally,” Ephron was mastering the craft of learning from and telling truths about people from all walks of life as a $98-a-week cub reporter for the New York Post.

U.S. Supreme Court Invalidates Most of the Key Provisions of Arizona’s Harsh Immigration Law

| June 25, 2012

The United States Supreme Court has reversed key provisions of the controversial Arizona immigrant law, invalidating Arizona’s–or any state’s–law that would have given state or local police the power to make warrantless arrests of individuals suspected of being undocumented, or “illegal.”

The Vagina Monologues Ungagged

| June 24, 2012

Vagina. Uterus. “There,” writes Marry Jo Melone in a look at the Lisa Brown-GOP flap over the words. “I’ve said those dirty words, and boy, did it feel good. It’s curious what a little free speech will do. It clears the mind.”

When American Health Care Heads for Texas

| June 24, 2012

If the Affordable Care Act is overturned, the rest of the country should take a good look at the situation in Texas, because this is what happens when you keep Medicaid enrollment as low as possible and don’t undertake insurance reforms.

Lord of the Flies On a School Bus: The Bullying of Karen Klein

| June 22, 2012

Karen Klein is the 68-year-old school bus monitor from Greece, N.Y., cruelly bullied by seventh graders and recorded on a YouTube video that went viral. The middle schoolers are acting out the persecuting spirit that christens their daily lives.

Rodney King’s Twilight, and Anna Deavere Smith’s: Coming to Palm Coast

| June 18, 2012

Rodney King was found dead at his home’s pool on June 17. Anna Deavere Smith 18 years ago wrote “Twilight,” a one-woman play that retells the story of the Rodney King riots through the voices of 37 people involved in the story. “Twilight” will be staged in Palm Coast this fall.

Gov. Scott Walker and the Pyrrhic Victories of Union-Bashing

| June 10, 2012

Inspired by Ronald Reagan’s union-busting, the latest round in the war on labor is a self-inflicted wound on the American economy, where workers-union and non-union alike–have been losing ground for 30 years.

“The Wreckage Was Vast and Startling”: Ernie Pyle on Omaha Beach, June 6, 1944

| June 6, 2012

Ernie Pyle on Omaha Beach after the D-Day invasion of June 6, 1944 describes a wreckage “vast and startling” along “this shoreline museum of carnage” even as he anticipates inevitable victory for the Allies.

Hero Whiplash: Abusing Soldiers, Misusing Honor

| May 29, 2012

When it comes to talking about the troops who have fought in Iraq and Afghanistan, hero is the most overused word, while those who have sent them to Iraq and Afghanistan let themselves off the hook, argues Mary Jo Melone.

When Elderly Is an Offensive Term

| May 28, 2012

The elderly are simultaneously the country’s most powerful single demographic and its least respected. But if the elderly don’t want to be infantilized, if they don’t want to be referred to as the elderly, it may be time to means-test the term and the literal benefits it entails.

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